What Happens to Goodbye(75)

A moment later, the door creaked open, the sound followed by a sudden, bustling rush of voices and footsteps. Then Ellis appeared at the top of the steps, with Riley and Heather behind him.
“Oh my God,” Heather, who was in a red jacket and short skirt with thick tights beneath it, said, “what is this place?”
“It’s called an attic,” Ellis told her. “It’s the top floor of a building.”
“Shut up,” she replied, smacking the back of his head.
“Enough,” Riley said in a tired voice. Then she looked at Dave. “I know we’re early. But being stuck in the car with both of them was about to make me insane.”
“Understood,” Dave replied. “I’ll be done here in a sec.”
“So this is where you’ve been spending all your time,” Ellis said, sliding his hands in his pockets as he walked along one side of the model. “Reminds me of all that action-figure stuff you used to play with.”
“It was war staging,” Dave said loudly, “and very serious.”
“Of course it was.”
Dave rolled his eyes, fastening one last house onto his sector. Then he stood up, wiping his hands on his jeans. “Okay, that one’s done. I’ll start up the next when I come in Saturday.”
Deb glanced over, checking his work. “Sounds good.”
“You’re leaving?” I asked.
“Previous engagement,” he replied, as Heather and Ellis walked over to the windows, looking down at the street. Riley was still standing over the model, taking it all in. “We have this dinner thing we do every month. It’s kind of mandatory.”
“What he means is,” Ellis piped up, “the food is so good you don’t want to miss it for anything. Or, um, anyone.”
Heather snorted, glancing at me. Riley said, “Let’s just go, okay? You know how she gets if we’re late.”
Ellis and Heather started for the door, with Dave falling in behind them. Riley took one last look across the model, then said, “You guys are welcome to come. I mean, if you want.”
“Where are you going, exactly?” I asked.
“My house,” she replied. “And Ellis is right. The food is amazing.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “It sounds great, but we’ve got this schedule, and owe time . . .”
“. . . but it can be readjusted,” Deb finished for me. I looked at her. “I mean, we can make it up. It’s not a problem.”
“Oh,” I said, surprised she was so quick to agree to this. “Well, great. Sure, then. We’d love to.”
Riley nodded, then turned to follow Dave and Heather, who were at the top of the stairs. Over her shoulder, she said, “Fair warning, though. My family’s kind of . . . crazy.”
“Isn’t everyone’s?” I replied.
“I guess,” she said with a shrug. “Come on. You can ride with us.”
“I know what you’re thinking,” Ellis said, hitting the key remote in his hand. “It’s pretty much the most stunning example of vehicular perfection ever.”
We all stood there, watching as the back door of the sky blue van slid open, revealing two rows of seats, the rear of which was stacked with soccer balls and various pairs of cleats.
“Don’t try to point out to him that it is just a minivan,” Heather said, climbing into the backseat and pushing a ball onto the floor. “We’ve tried.”

“It’s the modern man’s love machine,” Ellis replied, walking around to the driver’s-side door as Riley got in beside Heather, and Dave took a seat in the next row. I glanced at Deb, who was standing there clutching her purse, then slid in next to him, giving her the front seat. “How many vehicles do you know of that have an AC adapter plug-in, three feet of washable cargo space, and fully reclining fold-down seats?”
“It’s still a minivan,” Heather said. “Before you were macking around in it, it was strictly for car seats and crumbled Goldfish.”
“But I am macking around in it,” Ellis replied, cranking the engine as Deb shut her door. “And we’ll be macking all the way to Austin in it, too. That’s all that matters.”
We pulled out of the lot beside Luna Blu, turning into traffic. I turned around, so I was facing Riley, who was looking out the window while Heather checked ion ever.phone beside her. “You sure this is okay? Inviting two extra people at the last minute?”
“Oh, yeah,” she said. “My mom always makes too much anyway.”
“You can never have too much fried chicken,” Dave told her.
“She made fried chicken last time,” Heather said, still studying her screen. “I remember, because Dave ate two breasts, two legs, and two wings. Which was actually . . .”
“. . . an entire chicken,” Dave finished for her, sighing. “A personal best for me.”
“The gluttony on display is unbelievable,” Riley told me. “It’s almost embarrassing.”
“Almost,” Ellis said. Then he shot her a smile in the rearview, and she smiled back briefly, before looking out the window again.
We drove through town, past neighborhoods and subdivisions, until the road turned into a two-lane highway. The landscape began to change, with rolling hills on either side, the occasional farmhouse, and broad pastures dotted with cows. I realized suddenly that Deb hadn’t said a word, so I leaned forward, around her headrest.
“You okay?” I asked, my voice low.
“Yeah.” She was looking straight ahead, taking it all in. “I’ve just . . . never done this before.”